Welcome to the latest episode of Smart People Doing Really Dumb Stuff.

This time, the stars of the show include former CIA Director David Petraeus and Gen. John Allen, the top U.S commander in Afghanistan, as well as Paula Broadwell and Jill Kelley, two much-younger women who've gone from relative obscurity to near household names in the worst possible sense.

Petraeus and Allen are widely regarded as two of the military geniuses of our time. Broadwell, a married mom, was embedded (is that what they call it?) with Petraeus while he led the war in Afghanistan. She also brought about his downfall as CIA director when a series of anonymous emails sent to Kelley, a Petraeus family friend and "social liaison" were traced back to Broadwell, subsequently revealing her affair with Petraeus.

And then there's Allen, who investigators say exchanged a mind-boggling 20,000 to 30,000 often "inappropriate" emails with the married Kelley who got shirtless photos from this FBI guy she knows and ... oh never mind. If you're like me, you already know the story. Who can resist reading every single salacious detail of what's playing out like a bad soap opera — especially one that offers new twists and turns and an ever-expanding cast of characters?

Not since the John Edwards debacle have so many supposedly intelligent people made such a mess out of their lives. Though I have to say, it does seem fitting that Broadwell lives only a few blocks away from Edwards' ex-mistress Rielle Hunter in Charlotte, N.C. (I mean, who could make this stuff up?)

This time, instead of a presidential hopeful, we have a pair of four-star generals, about as high-powered as you can get, getting caught up in a sex scandal like a couple of bad-boy frat boys.

Except both these guys are old enough to know better. Petraeus turned 60 on Nov. 7 just as the you-know-what was about to hit the fan. Allen will be 59 in a couple of weeks. Both of them are married, both of them are fathers and both of them apparently managed to put aside any vestige of the solid instincts and sharp intellect that got them where they are.

How is it that they didn't realize nothing is secret in cyberspace? How is it that they didn't recognize that every intimate, suggestive or (in Allen's case) "flirtatious" email they sent could — and probably would — come back to haunt them? And, while we're at it, where did Allen, who I assume must have been rather busy being the Top Gun in Afghanistan, even find the time to write them?

I also wonder if they are naive enough to believe that women at least 20 years their junior were drawn by anything more than proximity to a seat of power. Or whatever.

What were these guys thinking? What were they thinking with? (I already know the answer to that one.)

All jokes aside, the one I feel really badly for is Holly, Petraeus' devoted wife, who, in her own right, has done incredible work on behalf of military families. She is reportedly enraged at his infidelity and after giving him 37 years of her life; she has every right to be.

She deserves far better. She is a woman of substance, a woman of value and far as I can tell, there's only one thing she isn't: a sexy brunette.